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Things Christians Should Stop Saying

Christians love to make lists of things that Christians need to stop saying.

RELEVANT listed “20 Christianese Phrases We Really Need to Stop Saying”. Huffington Post had “6 Things Christians Should Just Stop Saying”. Jayson D. Bradley wrote “3 Phrases Christians Should Quit Relying On“. Christian Piatt rounded up “Ten Cliches Christians Should Never Use“.

If all of these lists are unique, that’s at least 39 phrases/things/cliches that we need to remove from our vocabularies. Since Christians love being told what to stop saying, I figured I could get in on some of this sweet “thou shalt not say” action with a list of my own. But I could only come up with one item for the list:

#1. “…Christians should stop saying.”

Christians should stop saying that Christians should stop saying stuff.

Sure, I think the lists make some really good points. Sure, some of those phrases are annoying/overused/silly.

But here’s the thing about words – they only have meaning because we assign meaning to them. And the meaning that I assign in my context might not be the same meaning that you assign in your context.

What’s trite and obnoxious to one person might be quite meaningful to another. Words that sound profane and offensive to me could be the very words you need to hear to know you are loved.

Maybe what we say doesn’t matter as much as how we say it.

Maybe instead of making lists of what to stop saying, we should learn to say whatever words will effectively communicate faith, hope, and love to those around us.

Maybe we need new lists, not of words not to say but of things like grace and humility and wisdom.

But those things don’t make for catchy blog post titles, do they?

[ image: Kevo89 ]

published October 28, 2013

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